The Complete Poker Events Calendar for 2016

By Brodey Sheppard
- February 24, 2016

Playing poker online is fun and convenient, but there’s nothing like the thrill of playing and taking down the best competitors in a live tournament. Although it’s true you can pretty much play live poker in any club or room in the world, but why not consider taking your skills to this year’s premier events? With live poker, there are top tier tournaments every month all around the globe. Check out some of this year’s most awaited live tournaments!

The European Poker Tour (EPT)

Venue: Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland

Date(s): February 9-20

This year, PokerStars combined the much awaited European Poker Tour and The UK and Ireland Poker Tour into one massive event. There are 67 games scheduled to play over a duration of 12 days. The Royal Dublin Society was also the previous venue for the last EPT, where Reuben Peters beat Annette Obrestad and won the grand prize of €532,620.

There’s plenty for everyone in Dublin. The EPT has buy-ins that range from €100 up to €25,000. There are also other games like Flipouts, Hyperturbos and Irish Hold’em (a game played with four hole cards).

This is the ninth successful season of the Amateur Poker Association and Tour, and all eyes are on the World Championship of Amateur Poker in March. It’s expected that this year will top last year’s championship. WCOAP will have 22 events, starting with a two-day 8-game championship. The reigning world champion is Daniel Lewis who defeated through 396 players last year and claimed the grand prize of £8,500.

Other events to look out for include the Cash Championship and Open Face Chinese.

Mazagan Deep Stack (MAD)

Venue: Mazagan Casino, Morocco

Date(s): February 25-28

If you are planning to go on holiday, you should consider the stunning Mazagan Beach Resort. This is a well-known five-star complex that features a 7 km long beach front, a golf course, a modern club, pools and spas. But most importantly, it houses the largest casino in Morocco.

The MAD will run by the end of February and has a buy-in of £2,100. But for the price of £2,400, you will receive a package that includes accommodation and food. So if you’ve been looking for the perfect place to combine poker thrill and a great vacation, MAD is the place to be.

Super-Weekend Tallinn

Venue: Olympic Casino, Tallinn, Estonia

Date(s): May 4-8

For some people, the ultimate idea of fun is party and poker. If you are one of those individuals, then check out the upcoming SuperWeekend in Tallinn. This event is a poker festival packed with other fun happenings. The main event buy-in is €500. There are also other package options available.

If you want to invest in the entire experience, a complete package is €1,400. This includes the poker seat, four nights’ accommodation in a luxury hotel, €250 travel expense credit and entry into all the legendary Betsafe parties and VIP activities.

Irish Open

Venue: Citywest Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

Date(s): March 21-28

The Irish Open is the oldest poker tournament in Europe and second oldest tournament in the world after the World Series of Poker. Needless to say, this tournament is deep-seated in history. It has been drawing in eager punters since 1980.

The great news is that this year, it’s back and better than ever! There were some troubling rumours last year that the 2015 Irish Open was going to be the last tournament. This 2016, the buy-in even dropped to €1,150 to make is more accessible to players from all backgrounds. Incredibly, this buy-in comes with a whopping guarantee of €500,000.

Europe’s biggest poker festival will run from March 21 to 28 with a full schedule of 32 events to accommodate all bankrolls. The main event starts at March 24 and the final table will be on March 28. There is also The Mini Irish Open which is a two-day event with a €250 buy-in. This event starts on March 27.

The main event has satellites presently running in Coral Poker, Paddy Power Poker, Boyle Poker and Ladbrokes Poker.

There is surely a lot of excitement for this tournament. Organisers say that the aim is “to bring the craic back to the event.” We’ll raise a glass of Guinness to that!

European Poker Tour: Grand Final (EPT)

Venue: Monte Carlo, Monaco

Date(s): April 30 – May 6

It will a very exciting EPT season, even with just five regular stops. But the thing that makes EPT stand out this year is the €10,000 buy-in. This gives a sense of extra privilege coming to the Grand Final. There are already huge amount of money flying around, such as the €25,000, €50,000 and €100,000 High Roller events. If anything, this proves that EPT belongs in Monte Carlo.

In the EPT 2015 Grand Final, Adrian Mateos was crowned victor of the star-studded final table. Among his opponents were Johnny Lodden and Ole Schemion. After 106 main events, Mateos won €1 million, making him the first Spanish EPT champion in history. He also received a lot of street cred after running a huge bluff against Lodden on the final table.

Super High Roller Bowl

Venue: Aria, Las Vegas, USA

Date(s): May 29 – June 1

The very first Super High Roller Bowl seemed to come out of nowhere in 2015 and gained a whole lot of attention. The $500,000 buy-in event served as the launch pad for Poker Central TV station. This tournament attracted famous businessmen and 43 of the top poker players on earth.

Last year’s final table featured Connor Drinan, Erik Seidel Brian Rast and Scott Seiver. Seidel, Drinan and Seiver all cashed out and the prize money went to Rast who won against Seiver’s 2:1 chip lead. The first prize amounted to US$7.25 million.

This year’s Super High Roller Bowl will have a slightly lower buy-in of US$300,000 and a cap of 49 players. The organisers of the tournament expect a whopping US$15 million prize pool and a US$5 million grand prize.

World Series of Poker

Venue: Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, USA

Date(s): May 31 –July 18

The World Series of Poker is still widely considered the biggest poker event of the year, and it is scheduled to run from May 31 to July 18.

The organisers of WSOP have confirmed that the Monster Stack, Millionaire Maker and Little One for ONE DROP events will all be played again this year.

Colossus II (Date: June 2-7)

Colossus II is back for a second crack at the world’s largest poker tournament. Colossus I attracted an astounding 22,734 entries from 14,284 competitors. This year, the buy-in is at an ultra-low of US$565. The guarantee ranges from US$5 million to US$7 million, and the final prize will be at US$1 million for the winner.

Main Event (Date: July 9-18)

The main event will be packed with players at the top of their game. There will be three Day 1’s and then ten consecutive days of action which will lead up to the final table and the fight for the coveted WSOP bracelet.

November

Dates

Series

Casino

Nov 03, '16 - Nov 13, '16

2016 Fall Poker Round-Up

Wildhorse Resort Casino (Pendleton, OR)

Brodey Sheppard

Brodey Sheppard’s interest in keeping up with the ‘bleeding edge’ of technology has kept him working in the digital marketing industry for over six years. Aside from searching for opportunities to increase his online marketing knowledge, Sam also scours the Internet for useful bonuses and coupon codes that he can use to fuel his love for photography. During his free time, he watches professional photo retouching tutorials in between streaming his favourite TV shows. Fun fact: Sam has never met a cupcake he didn't like.